Like this:

It is a good thing success
for by it can be judged
talent, ability, quality
and all that deserved

It is a good thing success
for they were the ones not subject to contingency
not gainful of the deal of the hand
the place in line
the rules of the day
the circumstances now passed
of but two more seconds, or days, or years

It is a good thing success
for needs be the right sides
so can be joined with the ones
and can be made jeers at the others

It is a good thing success
for by it can be judged the
second best
the almost was
the failures

Yet that pesky alternative universe
where the contingencies that fell to A
now fall to B
and now is all the other way round

Like this:

“having a lowly opinion of oneself; meekness; having a low estimate of one’s importance, worthiness, or merits; marked by the absence of self-assertion or self-exaltation; lowly: the opposite of proud.”
–From the Oxford English Dictionary, a sample of what is found under Humble and Humility

Somewhat surprising?
As if it were believed wrong
as if hard to accept
this humility thing

Wasn’t it supposed a good thing
a cautious estimate not to overstate
a prudent awareness of inherent limitations

Yet these descriptions
such condeming? words
Almost a screaming
no don’t do it
no don’t be weak

If called a bad thing
need it then not be done
Is there an aversion natural
to humility the good

Like this:

“It was further necessary that he should be able to use these sounds as signs of internal conceptions; and to make them stand as marks for the ideas within his own mind”
John Locke
An Essay concerning Human Understanding
Part 1, Book 3, Chapter 1

Its atoms are invisible to me
(if even atoms exist)
Its metaphysical essence beyond my reach
Even its color and smell may waver with the day

I know it,
think about it,
act as a result of it –
not by it
but by its word.

The thing is
what its word is.
And the meaning I take
on any given day
for that word.

We think in words
We know by words
The thing – Its word
Are they the same

And of the thing said
the thing said of another
the thing said of self
So too of this
It is not the thing which is said,
it is its word

We recognize other in words
We label other by words
as do we self
The thing – Its word
Are they the same

It starts as merely perception,
the entire universe.
It becomes reality by words chosen
consciously? unconsciously?
The thing at the start
does it even remain once become a word